How Lighting Affects the Sleeping Patterns of the Elderly?

How Lighting Affects the Sleeping Patterns of the Elderly?

The lighting in your bedroom directly affects your sleep irrespective of your age. It causes hormonal changes that affect the quality and nature of sleep.

Biological rhythms – cyclical fluctuations in the intensity and nature of biological processes and phenomena – are observed in almost all plants and animals, both unicellular and multicellular, and even some isolated organs and individual cells. Your body works in approximately a 24-hour cycle, called a circadian rhythm. Controlling your body temperature and the number of hormones that affect sleep and mood, it determines when you wake up, fall asleep and how you feel. The circadian rhythm for each individual is different, so your circadian rhythm may differ from the rhythm of your friends and family members.

Sleep and bright light

Bright light signals your brain to start a new day. When it is dark, the pineal gland of your brain produces the hormone melatonin, which provides a normal alternation of sleep and wakefulness. As the sun rises, melatonin levels drop and you wake up.

Lighting has the most direct effect on your sleep – in the dark, the hormone melatonin is released, which ensures a normal alternation of sleep and wakefulness.

Overcoming the time difference:

Your biological clock is usually local time oriented. If you cross several time zones, the normal circadian rhythm for you may get lost, causing the so-called time difference symptoms, which include headaches, sleep problems and loss of concentration.